The Next Generation (SG1-1)
by SGxElPsyKongroo-0-PWxObjection
Summary: It is the year 2052. Kurisu and Okabe are happily married with two teenage children. Those children meet up with Suzuha and Kagari during a brief visit to Japan. The four young lab members discover some details regarding the time travelling capabilities of the Phone Wave. This interest causes them to try to recreate it. - (Set in Anime Universe) (Uses Characters from Steins;Gate 0)
1. Chapter 1

The Next Generation  
Steins;Gate  
Chapter One

2052.05.08 - 5:30 PM JST  
Wednesday

It was a dark and stormy evening in Akihabara as our train pulled into the station. My brother was at my side. His name was Hibiki. As the two of us stepped out into the street, we experienced the strong wind blowing between the buildings. The rain was coming down hard. Our clothes were soaked. I pointed out into the distance.

"This way."

I led us to our destination and we soon arrived at the CRT Workshop owned and operated by one Tennouji Yuugo. I had heard about this man before and knew him by a very old and very appropriate nickname. Hibiki slowly creaked the door open. The store was poorly lit. Inside were shelves full of CRT TVs. Including an enormous forty inch acting as the centrepiece for everything. It really drew your attention, which I guess was the point. I actually felt quite uncomfortable entering the store and walking so close to all this expensive and ancient technology. Seriously, most of the stuff in this shop was obsolete when our parents were in their teens. Though all things considered, CRTs were worth a fortune now thanks to collectors. I was honestly terrified that I would break something. We proceeded in anyway.

An old man in his 70s sat behind a desk a few feet away. He stared at us intensely. Hibiki was the first to speak.

"Hello. Are you Mr. Tennouji?" He asked the man.

"Yeah. That's me. What are two kids like you doing in my shop?" He replied.  
"If you're trying to trade in something, just know that I can't accept anything without your parent's consent." Tennouji paused. "That's assuming what you're offering is any good."

"Actually, no. We're not here for regarding a CRT TV." Hibiki told him. "We're here for something else."

"What then?"

At that moment I burst into my mad scientist laughter. This threw off the entire mood. I smiled and turned to Tennouji.

"Mr. Braun, my assistant and I have come here with one purpose. We wish to re-establish the presence of the Future Gadget Laboratory here in Akihabara. If you cooperate, I promise to pay you handsomely once the Organization is defeated. I swear it on my honour as a mad scientist. You can trust the word of Hououin Kyouma II."

"I am not your assistant! Cut it out with the nonsense, Asuka!" Hibiki yelled me. He regained his composure and walked up to Tennouji.

"Sorry about that. What my sister meant to say is that we would like to look into renting the apartment upstairs. It is still vacant, yes?"

Tennouji didn't seem to fully process what my brother had said. He just looked at me and then chuckled.

"Tell me young lady, what's your name?"

"I already told you. I'm the evil mad scientist Hououin Kyouma II."

Hibiki's expression turned sour. He was getting really irritated.

"I told you to cut it out, didn't I?"

I sighed. Perhaps Hibiki was right. We weren't getting anything done right now with our constant banter. It was probably a good idea to dial down on the mad scientist act for the time being.

"Okay. I'll stop… for now." I told him pulling my best sad face. I then turned to Tennouji for a proper introduction.

"Hello. I'm Okabe Asuka and this is my brother Okabe Hibiki."

Tennouji thoroughly examined us. The name Okabe must've gotten his attention. It was supposed to. He pulled a pair of glasses out of his shirt pocket and put them on. He chuckled again.

"I thought you two looked familiar. Are you two somehow related to my old tenant?"

"Yeah. Okabe Rintarou is our father."

Tennouji smiled, much to my surprise. From what I had heard from Mom, Papa had been nothing but a pest while he rented the upstairs apartment. I thought Tennouji would've still had a grudge against him. I guess not.

"Ha. I remember back when that boy was just another troublesome teenager." Tennouji commented.  
"Now he has a family? I wonder who your mother is. I'm just gonna take a stab in the dark and say that it's that Makise girl."

He hit the nail on the head. Makise Kurisu was our mother. I was a bit surprised that Tennouji was able to determine this information so easily. Then again, I was pretty sure Papa left Japan under the pretense of dating Mom. All the lab members were at the wedding too. Perhaps one of them already told Tennouji about this and he was just toying with us. The man then looked over to my brother.

"You said you wanted the apartment? I assume you're aware the advertised rental fee?"

"Of course. Do you want it now?" Hibiki asked Tennouji. He reached into his pocket.

"Sure." Tennouji grabbed the apartment key from under the desk and Hibiki pulled out several 5000 yen bills from his wallet. The two then exchanged the items with a firm handshake.

"See what happens when you act rationally, sis? People aren't so hard to work with."

I gave Hibiki a dirty look and we left the store to head up to the apartment. We got outside and a familiar brown haired woman ran up to us. This was Hashida Suzuha, an old family friend. Hibiki and I hadn't actually got to see her very much in person due to the fact we lived in America. By the time Suzuha reached us, she was exhausted. It looked like she had been running for a while.

"What… happened? I… thought… I was… picking you two… up at the airport." Suzuha told us, desperate for air. I decided to respond as Hououin Kyouma II.

"We left the airport because the Organization was hot on our trail. Agents were everywhere. I couldn't risk us getting captured."

While I thought I had given a perfectly reasonable explanation, Hibiki didn't think that at all. He proceeded to give his own side of the story.

"I'm sorry Suzuha. Our flight arrived thirty minutes ahead of schedule and a certain someone didn't want to wait around for you."

That's what actually what happened. I sort of dragged Hibiki out of the airport before Suzuha could get there. In hindsight, this was a bad move. However, I wasn't about to admit that.

"It's okay… I saw you get on the train… Just don't pull a stunt like that again." Suzuha said. She was still tired, but her breathing and heart rate quickly going back to normal.

The rain was still coming down like nothing else. We all headed inside the apartment we had just rented. It was home to Future Gadget Laboratory once more. The rooms throughout the lab felt quite empty with just basic furniture and appliances. Suzuha set up her laptop on the coffee table as she took a seat on the couch. She then asked me a question.

"Asuka, you have access to the lab now. What's the plan exactly? What are you planning to do during your two weeks here in Japan? I should know because your parents told me to look after you two."

"Wah ha ha ha ha. I'm glad you asked, 008." I loudly addressed Suzuha by her lab member number.  
"This is the beginning of Operation Uhr!"

My proclamation was met with silence. I saw Hibiki pull out his phone and started typing. He stopped and looked at me, clearly unamused.

"Uhr? That's the German word for clock. Does this involve something stupid like trying to build a time machine?"

"Haha. No, my dear assistant. We're not ready to conquer time quite yet. My brilliant plan has to do with-"

We were interrupted by a series of knocks coming from across the room. The door then flew open before anyone could answer. Two more familiar faces stepped forward.

"Turturu. Okarin? Is that you?" Said an adult female voice.

It was Shiina Mayuri, followed by her adopted daughter named Kagari. Hibiki and I called her Aunt Mayuri, we had visited each other a few times over the years. As she entered the room, Aunt Mayuri's smile faded and was replaced with a look of confusion. I didn't really get why.

"Oh. Sorry for the intrusion. Mayushii thought Okarin was here." Aunt Mayuri commented.

She looked over at me. "Hi, Asuka. That laugh must've been from you. You sound just like your father, you know. It's nice to see you."

I wasn't sure how Aunt Mayuri came to that conclusion. I was a girl. My voice was at a much higher pitch. Knowing the way her mind worked, she probably thought Papa inhaled some helium or something. Kagari then glanced at her phone.

"Mommy. Before you start chatting, I thought I should remind you that you have a meeting in half an hour."

Meeting? Interesting… Does this have to with her work? Come to think of it, I never actually asked what Aunt Mayuri did for a living. Aunt Mayuri's smile returned.

"Right. Mommy remembers now. We'll have to come back later. Bye, you guys."

Aunt Mayuri and Kagari head back to the door, but they soon they stop. Aunt Mayuri then turned to her daughter.

"Kagari, would you like stay here? Mommy doesn't think you really want to follow her to this meeting. She also knows you get along well with Asuka and Hibiki. Suzuha too."

"Could I? I would really appreciate that Mommy. I want to get to know them better."

Aunt Mayuri and Kagari had to be some of the weirdest adults I had ever met. They were approaching 59 and 26 years old respectively, yet they talked like elementary school students. Then again, I couldn't really talk. I was the daughter of a self-proclaimed mad scientist. My family was weird too.

"I would be more than happy if you could join us, Kagari. I use the company of another person that isn't off their rocker."

Hibiki shot me another glare. He just loved poking fun at me. After the that Aunt Mayuri left and I elected to hold an official meeting to finally reveal my plan. Hopefully, there would be no more interruptions.

"This is the 452nd Grand Council meeting of Future Gadget Laboratory's Akihabara division. I am Hououin Kyouma II! Lab member 013! Today, we would be discussing possible action regarding a new piece of intelligence I've received."

I held up an old CD for everyone to see. I knew CDs were a very fragile technology, so I tried to handle it with care while also being as dramatic as possible. The CD had a title, hastily written on the front in permanent marker. The three other lab members gathered around and read this title simultaneously.

"Event Summary: Operation Skuld and Operation Ragnarok."

******  
(Chapter Two: Out Now!)


	2. Chapter 2

The Next Generation  
Steins;Gate  
Chapter Two

2052.05.08 - 6:14 PM JST  
Wednesday

Everyone gathered around me as I set the CD down on the coffee table. Suzuha immediately picked it up.

"This… this is a Sonny CD-R from the early 2010s." She observed. "These are super rare. How did you get your hands on this?"

"Asuka probably stole this from Papa's office." Hibiki butted in. He then pointed to an illegible signature located on the edge of the disc. "That's his wonderful royal seal."

"Um, I think you mean the Official Future Gadget Seal of Hououin Kyouma I." I teased him. Hibiki rolled his eyes.

"Why is this CD so important, anyway? It could just be wedding photos. It would make sense considering the time period. Mama and Papa got married in 2016."

"No. That was Operation Cupid's Arrow." I told Hibiki with a smile. "This is something much… bigger."

"Really?" Kagari gasped in surprise. "Please tell us Asuka."

"The content of this CD is of the utmost importance! It will change the world! Soon the Organization will crumble in the palm of my-"

"She has absolutely no idea what's on this CD." Hibiki interrupted. "It could be blank for all we know."

I grit my teeth. Hibiki probably annoyed me just as much as I annoyed him. We had a very similar relationship to our parents in that regard. I snatched the CD out of Suzuha's hands and held it up in the air once more.

"You lack imagination. That's your problem, assistant. Hououin Kyouma II requires people who can think outside of the box. Why did I even hire you?"

"You didn't hire me. I'm your brother, I didn't have a-"

Hibiki cut himself off. His face told me he had an idea. He dug into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

"It's 909-555-3089, right?"

"What?" I asked him to elaborate. Hibiki sneaked in a cocky grin.

"I'm asking if that's Jason's phone number?" As soon as I heard this, my face went red.

"Why… why… are you asking that? This… this… isn't a good time to call him, you know."

Suzuha and Kagari stared at me blankly. They'd probably never seen me act like this before. All I could do was try to mask my embarrassment.

"Ha. You may have inherited Papa's insanity, but you still handle romance the same way Mom does."

"Sh-shut up." This was the only response I could muster. Suzuha proceeded to join in with Hibiki's teasing. Payback is such a pain in the butt.

"Romance? Does that mean you have a crush on this Jason person, perhaps?"

"Oh. In that case, you two should try going on a date." Kagari happily chimed in.

This wasn't good. They were all ganging up on me. I had to change the topic fast. I broke the conversation with a loud clearing of the throat.

"Any… anyway, it is true that I haven't actually viewed the contents of this disc. It could very well be something totally uninteresting." I paused and looked Hibiki right in the eyes.

"What I do know is that Papa has never mentioned an Operation Skuld or an Operation Ragnarok before. There must be a reason for that and I want to find out." I then turned to Suzuha.

"008, if I'm not mistaken you and your father have a small collection of retro PCs."

She gave me a hesitant nod. I continued talking.

"I formally request that we borrow one of these machines and use it to find out the secrets hidden deep within this CD."

"A formal request? I guess that's a lot coming from you." Suzuha said this with a laugh. She stood up from the couch and packed up her laptop.

"My Dad actually just finished restoring an old Winddex 14 computer. It's from the mid-2020s, so it's slightly newer than your CD. But that shouldn't be a problem from a technical standpoint. It has a disc drive and that's all that matters."

Suzuha then walked over to the door. She peeked outside to check that the rain stopped.

"However, we'll have to go and get it together. Your parents told me repeatedly not to leave you guys alone under any circumstances. Are you ready for a little trip out of town?"

"This is unacceptable. I am an evil mad scientist." I said with puffed cheeks. "Why can't home base understand that I don't require constant supervision. Same goes for my assistant."

"It's because we're fifteen-year-old kids in a country which we're not that familiar with, Asuka. Mama and Papa are just looking out for our safety."

I released a long growl in response to Hibiki's statement. This argument had persisted since we started planning this trip. I didn't think I needed to go through this again. I look up at Suzuha. I only had three words for her.

"Fine. Let's go."

We spent the next hour and a half travelling over to Uncle Daru's workshop. Uncle Daru was Suzuha's father. Suzuha led us inside. It was really messy. Disused circuit boards and hard drive casings were spread carelessly across the floor. In the back room, a round gentleman sat comfortably on his office chair. He wasn't facing us, but he must've of heard us come in. The man typed on his phone with one hand while he soldered some wires with the other. This was the big man himself. Uncle Daru dropped his phone and raised that hand to acknowledge our presence. He then spoke to us.

"Give me a minute and I'll be right with you. Just need to finish fixing this USB port."

"That's fine Dad, it's just me."

Uncle Daru immediately stopped what he was doing at the sound of his daughter's voice. He spun around and smiled.

"Oh. Hi, Suzuha. Come to visit your old man? It's been awhile."

He briefly embraced Suzuha before taking a glance over at Hibiki and I.

"Same goes to you two. You've grown so much since your last visit with Okarin." Uncle Daru took on a typical thinking pose. "It's been four or five years now, I think."

"Yeah. Something like that." Hibiki commented.

"Um, didn't we come here for a computer?" I cut into their conversation. Kagari then followed my lead.

"Yeah. A Wine Dix 40, I believe."

"I think you mean Winddex 14, right?" Hibiki gently corrects her. Kagari shows her innocent little smile.

"Yes, that's what I meant."

I looked over at Uncle Daru. He looked deep in thought. Uncle Daru was probably quite hesitant to lend this machine out considering how expensive it was. I knew I had to sell him on the idea.

"Mr. Hashida, I would really appreciate it if you would let us borrow this computer for Operation Uhr. I promise it will be returned to you in one piece."

I pretty much begged him to say yes. I even added a respectful bow at the end, in typical Japanese fashion.

"Asuka… never call me Mr. Hashida ever again." Uncle Daru said with a frown. He then sighed and turned back to Suzuha.

"You remember where I put it?"

"It's in the retro cabinet. Shelf number three."

"That's my girl. Go get it for these guys."

My eyes lit up once I heard this. We were getting the computer after all. Suzuha ran out of the room and came back with a small laptop. Well, I guess it was small for its time, but this computer was enormous when compared to modern machines. The whole reason why we needed this computer in the first place was because PC disc drives are hard to find these days. Nothing we had at home could read a CD-ROM. After saying goodbye to Uncle Daru, we left for the lab. By the time we boarded the train going back to Akihabara, it was already 10 PM. The four of us sat alone in an empty rail car. We all looked at each other. Hibiki then asked me a question.

"You have the CD with you, right? Would it hurt stick it into the laptop now? We have another thirty minutes to kill."

"I think that's okay. Any objections, 008?"

"No. I just wish you start using my real name for once. My name is not 008."

"Welcome to my world." Hibiki sarcastically commented. I handed the CD to Suzuha and we waited for the computer to finish booting up. Once it was done doing its thing, Suzuha inserted the disc. It came up to speed and a Winddex explorer window popped up. There was one folder. It was labeled "private". I hovered my finger over the icon on the laptop's touch screen and clicked on the folder. A password window suddenly popped up as well.

"That's strange. It wants a password." Suzuha said, slightly intrigued. She then opened the command window and did a bit of coding. Her eyes widened. "The disc is also programmed it erase itself if you get the password wrong three times."

"Oh great." Hibiki rolled his eyes. "A bad idea just turned into a horrible idea."

"El Psy Kongroo. It has to be El Psy Kongroo."

Suzuha looked at me and shook her head. She placed her fingers on the keyboard and typed El Psy Kongroo into the password box using her native Japanese characters. It came back as incorrect. Suzuha turned at me again. She didn't look pleased.

"Try writing it in English." I told her.

Despite her bitterness, Suzuha listened to me and entered El Psy Kongroo back into the password box. This time she used the English character system. It came back as incorrect again. I stuttered. Was my assumption wrong? No. Papa could never pass the opportunity to use El Psy Kongroo as a password. I was missing something. I looked over at Suzuha once more.

"Spell Kongroo with a C."

This time my request was met with silence. I didn't understand why.

"Asuka, this is our last try." Hibiki reminded me. "If you're wrong, the whole disc gets erased. Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

In light of my firm response, Suzuha entered one last entry into the password box. She carefully typed El Psy Congroo, key by key by key. We all crossed our fingers as the laptop examined the password and we were all relieved when the folder finally opened.

"Papa's English has never been perfect." I said with a laugh. I then shifted my attention to the additional files we had just revealed. The first thing to pop out was a folder full of a few dozen image files. I quickly scrolled through all of them. They appeared just to be a bunch of crudely drawn diagrams on the back of napkins. They were so crude that I couldn't even begin to speculate what they were supposed to represent.

"What's this?" Suzuha whispered under her breath. I'm sure all of us shared this question. We left that folder and clicked on another. This one had a bunch of video files which were labeled Part 1 through Part 4. I tapped on Part 1 and the video began. This video included a familiar face. It was Okabe Rintarou, my father. He looked really young at this point, no more than twenty years old. It was quite a shock to see.

"This is a video log made by the evil mad scientist Hououin Kyouma." Papa loudly announced. "Today is August 26th 2010. I am cataloging the destructive events of the last month in the hope that the painful sacrifices my friends have gone through will not be forgotten."

Quite frankly, I had no idea where Papa was going with this. What destructive events was he talking about? Did these events actually happen or was this just Hououin Kyouma talking? What he said next sounded even more ridiculous. Even to me. Papa took a deep breath and looked right into the camera.

"This is the story of how Future Gadget 008 became a time machine."

******  
(Chapter Three: Out Now!)


	3. Chapter 3

The Next Generation  
Steins;Gate  
Chapter Three

2052.05.08 - 10:19 PM JST  
Wednesday

Future Gadget 008? Wow. If I remember correctly, the lab in Los Angeles was working on Future Gadget 626 right now. 2010 really was a long time ago. None of us were even alive back then. At the age of 34, Suzuha was the oldest person in our group and she wasn't born until 2017.

Then the other part of Papa's statement finally registered. How could Future Gadget 008 be a time machine? It made no sense. This clearly had to be a part of his mad scientist act, we all knew that. Yet despite this, no one tried to stop the video. Papa continued on. He spoke of the Phone Wave (name subject to change) and the strange phenomena experienced during its initial testing experiments. Gelified bananas and the like. It was all quite interesting. I didn't understand why this never came up before. I loved hearing about the development of past Future Gadgets. Kagari then interrupted my train of thought.

"Hey, that's teenage Uncle Okarin. I want to see teenage Uncle Okarin." She cried out.

Kagari sat the furthest away from the screen and she didn't have a very good angle. She shuffled against Hibiki to get a better look. Her unexpected strength threw him off balance and we all fell over like a line of dominoes. The laptop slipped out of Suzuha's lap and hit the hard metal floor with a disturbing thud. It slid across to the other side of the rail car. Suzuha went ballistic.

"You idiots! Do you have any idea how much that machine costs now?!"

She quickly scrambled to pick up the fallen computer and disparately examined it for damage. Kagari realized she had messed up and held her breath with the rest of us. We really didn't want to be stuck with the bill for a broken antique laptop. Suzuha sighed in relief and sat back down beside me.

"You guys are so lucky." She said with a push of the power button. "I couldn't even find a scratch on this thing. That's remarkable. The battery may have come out, but that's okay. We just need to wait a second for it to reboot."

We waited forever for the computer to reboot and Suzuha logged in again using the fingerprint sensor. I noticed she was gripping the laptop quite tightly. I didn't blame her. I didn't want this thing to fall again either. Suzuha opened the CD-ROM using the password we just discovered. The files still appeared, but they were all corrupted. With the exception of Kagari, we all swore.

"Language. All of you." Kagari criticized us. Hibiki turned to Suzuha.

"Do… do you think it's possible to recover anything?" He asked her.

"I don't know. Fixing up corrupted files is pretty tricky." Suzuha said with a sigh. "I'll copy this over to my main computer at home and see what I can do."

"Try your best, 008. This is critical information." I announced as Hououin Kyouma II.

"Really? Even you must admit that this story, while interesting, has no scientific basis." Hibiki told me. "How do you go from gelified bananas to time machine?"

"That's exactly what I want to find out. Papa doesn't seem like his usual self in that video."

"Who knows? Maybe that's just age." Hibiki commented.

He was right. This uneasy feeling in my stomach could just be the shock of seeing my father at such a young age. Still, I trusted my instincts. Something was up.

When we finally arrived at the lab, it was almost midnight. Kagari went home right away while Suzuha followed Hibiki and I to our hotel room. Suzuha then left to go home herself, but not without spending a good five minutes lecturing us. She didn't want either of us to leave the hotel unless it was an emergency. Seriously. I knew Suzuha valued her relationship with our parents, but I thought she was going a bit overboard. I was fifteen years old, I wasn't a little kid anymore. Once Suzuha had made her exit, it didn't take long for Hibiki and I to get ready for bed. I sank into the comfy mattress and quickly fell asleep. I couldn't wait to see what the morning had in store for us.

* * *

It was 9 AM and Suzuha still hadn't shown up at our door. Not wanting to get in trouble for leaving the building, Hibiki sent her a text. Suzuha said she was busy right now. She also said that we could head over to the lab. I wasn't someone to miss an opportunity, so I immediately dragged Hibiki out onto the street. We only got a few blocks before he started to get hungry, and boy did he complain about it. As we were getting close to the lab, I noticed a maid café off of our left. A sign near the entrance read "May Queen NyanNyan". I recognized that name, but I didn't know where from. I proceeded to drag Hibiki into the restaurant and we sat at a table. He freaked out.

"Wha… what are we doing here, Asuka?!"

"You said you were hungry, right? Well, eat."

But… but… don't you realize what this place is?!" Hibiki must've thought I was an idiot. Even though we grew up in America, I still knew exactly where we were. One of the maids then approached us.

"Hello Meowster, hello Meowtress. What are we ordering today-nya?"

"I hate to ask, but do you serve any American food?" Hibiki asked with a deep breath. "I'm sorry I just feel a bit homesick."

"Yes. Is a ham sandwich okay-nya?"

"That's fine." Hibiki went into his shell. He clearly did not want to be here. The maid then turned to me.

"Anything for you-nya?"

"Surprise me. Just keep it under 1000 yen."

"Okay. Drinks-nya?"

"Doktor Pepper." Hibiki and I both answered her with these two words. The maid gave us a bright smile and headed over to the kitchen. We were served our food within five minutes and we finally ate breakfast. We paid and were on our way out when a pink haired woman walked passed us. Our eyes connected.

"Faris?" The name just dropped out of my mouth. I had seen photos of her on Papa's phone. The woman stopped. A smile then formed on her face.

"Oh? It's been years since Faris was last called Faris." She told us with her trademark grin. "How did you find out about my mysterious past?"

"Ha. Fool. I am Hououin Kyouma II. There is nothing outside of my perception."

Hibiki crossed his arms and frowned. He knew what was coming. Faris examined me. It was then when she noticed my lab coat as well as my lab member badge which I kept proudly pinned on my shirt.

"Kyouma II? You… you mean he's finally chosen a successor?" Faris asked me. Her smile somehow grew even bigger. "But you're more than just a successor, aren't you?"

"That's right." Hibiki jumped in. "We're both his children, Miss… um…"

"Akiha. My name is Akiha Rumiho." She replied to my brother. "But please call me Faris. Faris is Faris-nya." Faris then shot us a sad look.  
"Were you leaving already? Faris hasn't seen either of you for almost a hundred years. Not since the great battle of Yarn Falls during the Korean War."

I stuttered. Even I thought she was going a bit far with the delusions. Faris probably last saw us when we were like two. This was getting silly. At this point, another woman with short black hair poked her head into the dining area.

"Is something wrong, Faris? You've been out here longer than…"

The woman cuts herself off when she saw that Faris was talking to Hibiki and I. She put on a weak smile.

"Oh. Who are these two?"

"They're Kyouma's kids." Faris answered. "You remember Asuka and Hibiki, right?"

"Yes… of course." The woman said, surprised that we were here. She turned her head towards me. Then Hibiki.

"Do you remember me? I believe you called me Uncle Ruka."

Uncle Ruka… Uncle… I thought she was a girl. She was a guy? That was perfectly fine, I just never would've thought he was a dude by the way he dressed. He was in a shrine maiden outfit. As I was thinking about how to handle this, all sorts of long forgotten memories came up. I suddenly remembered the lab member conference that my father held in the summer of 2042. I was only five at the time, so my recollection of this was quite limited. However, I still vaguely remembered meeting Uncle Ruka and Papa made the big point that he was a dude. I can't believe that I forgot that. I felt a bit embarrassed. I looked over at Hibiki. He seemed to have gone through the same mental process that I did. We both tried to cover up our wrongful assumption with a forced smile.

"Well, I remember you." Hibiki said, breaking the painful silence. He then turned to me. "Do you remember him, Asuka?"

"Haha. Of course. How could the great Hououin Kyouma II forget her father's old faithful student." I pulled this from the stories Papa told me about his teenage years. Ruka's face lit up.

"Oh… that brings back some great memories. Thanks, Asuka."

"I'm Kyouma II, not Asuka."

"R… right. Sorry." Ruka covered his mouth with his hands. This was in response to my correction. I didn't mean for him to take that so seriously. I guess he was more sensitive than I thought.

Once everything was cleared up, Hibiki and I were invited to go into the back so we could continue talking without disturbing the customers. It turned out Faris was actually the manager and she had hired Ruka has her assistant manager. We played catch up with them for about an hour and then it was time to go.

We were being led out through a side door when Hibiki tripped over something. I turned to look behind me. There was a commercial microwave just sitting right in the middle of the doorway. My eyes became fixated on it. The Phone Wave was also originally made out of a commercial microwave. I shifted my gaze over to Faris.

"Is… is there anything wrong with this microwave?" I asked her. "Why is it on the floor like this?"

"It's supposed to go in the trash. It keeps freezing everything. I don't get it-nya."

This was precisely what I wanted to hear. This microwave froze everything? The Phone Wave did the exact same thing with Aunt Mayuri's chicken tenders. I only had one more question for Faris.

"If… you're gonna throw this out anyway, could… could we have it?"

******  
(Chapter Four: Out Now!)


	4. Chapter 4

The Next Generation  
Steins;Gate  
Chapter Four

2052.05.09 - 11:13 AM JST  
Thursday

Thankfully, Faris agreed to give us the microwave when I asked. It wasn't much of a loss for her after all, it was going in trash regardless. Even still, I couldn't believe how lucky we were to stumble across this. Hibiki and I did have a tough time getting it to the lab though. The two of us kept arguing about how to properly carry the microwave. It weighed a ton. I wanted to walk back to front, while Hibiki wanted to walk sideways. This argument continued as we somehow managed to get to the lab without dropping our prize. Suzuha and Kagari were already there.

"Where did you two go? I thought you were coming straight here?" Suzuha interrogated us as we slowly set down the microwave on the floor. I was about to go into some mad scientist spiel, but Hibiki beat me to the explanation.

"I'm sorry, Suzuha. It's… a long story." He apologized. "We ran into some old family friends. Did you ever meet Faris and Ruka?"

"Of course. I met them at the 2032 lab member conference. My family has those connections too."

Come on, Hibiki. There's an international lab meeting every ten years. Suzuha had to be there for at least one of them. Kagari then spoke up, pointing at the microwave.

"What's that? Did you get it so we could heat up some snacks?"

"This is the Phone Wave (name subject to change) Mark II. It's for experimental purposes only." I proudly announced this to rest of the lab. Hibiki and Suzuha rolled their eyes.

"Really? You're trying to recreate Papa's stupid fantasy time machine? That's why you made me carry this massive appliance?" Hibiki yelled at me. "You're a lot of things, but delusional is not one of them. Listen to reason, Asuka! Time travel is impossible!"

"My name's Kyouma II, not Asuka." I told him. "Also I must be delusional, overwise I wouldn't be a mad scientist."

Hibiki appeared to be on the verge of a meltdown. Kagari then ran over to ease him through it. I took this opportunity to talk to Suzuha.

"How did it go, 008? Did you fix up those corrupted files."

"Oh. That." Suzuha sat back down on the couch. Her modern laptop sat on the coffee table just like yesterday. I didn't see the retro laptop anywhere. I guess Suzuha left it at home. She then opened a spreadsheet and I sat beside her. The spreadsheet was full of excerpts from the videos carefully organized by timestamp. There were a lot of clear holes.

"I see. You managed to recover some of the data, but not all of it." I mumbled to myself.

"Yeah, but there's a lot of lost data." Suzuha scrolls down and pointed at one of her entries.

"Your father mentions SERN right here, but everything around it is gone. I can't get any context for what he's talking about."

"Interesting…" I trailed off. "SERN… isn't SERN a European physics research institution? The one that burnt out in the late 2020s?"

"That's right. They lost their funding and had to close their doors." Suzuha paused. "Still, I wonder why your father brought it up."

She shook her head. "Anyway, I spent all night building this spreadsheet. I'm going to take a quick nap. Feel free to take a look at what I've uncovered."

Suzuha laid down on the couch and I took her laptop from the coffee table and brought it over to the kitchen counter. Hibiki and Kagari followed me over there and I briefly explain to them what Suzuha had done. We went over the entire spreadsheet and learned a bit more about the original Phone Wave (name subject to change). Stuff like the data limit and the need for a lifter. It seemed like we could use the CRT TVs downstairs for this. We never got a reason why Papa was keeping this a secret and that bugged me a bit. Even after we reached the end of the document, Hibiki was still in denial.

"This is total BS." He coldly stated. "Hard to believe Papa would make up all this fake science just for an April Fools joke."

"Huh? How are you so sure it's fake?" Kagari asked him. I gave her the honest truth.

"It's because my assistant is hard headed and believes only in an ordered universe. He doesn't think time machines are even possible."

"That's right. They're not possible. Time travel would break all the laws of physics."

"If you're so sure of that, then why don't we try to reproduce this time machine Papa has brought forward?" I proposed. "We have those crude napkin diagrams and we have an actual microwave to experiment on. If time travel really is impossible, what's the worst the could happen?"

"I would be wasting my time building something doomed to fail."

I sighed. I thought Hibiki would say that. Look's like I would have to resort to bribery.

"I'll set you up for a date with Emily if you help me build the Phone Wave (name subject to change) Mark II. We share the same friend circle."

Blood ran from Hibiki's face. He seriously didn't think I was aware of his crush as well? This was perfect revenge for when he mentioned Jason yesterday. It takes a few seconds, but Hibiki regained his composure.

"Okay. I'll accept your offer, Asuka. Where do we start?"

We then spend the rest of the day taking apart the microwave and installing the necessary components. The inside of the microwave was a mess. It appeared someone at the maid café actually tried to repair the unit themselves and that resulted in a lot of wires being patched up with electrical tape. It was tough, but we did it. We finally finished our prototype after about six hours of work and multiple runs to the store to get parts. We woke up Suzuha from her nap so she could also witness this special occasion.

"Assistant, what do you think our first test should be? What message should we send back in time?" I asked him once everyone has gathered. Hibiki thought for a bit before arriving at an answer.

"We could try getting you and Jason together. Send him a date request." He said this with an evil smile. I blush a bit but quickly get over it.

"Rejected. What do you think, Kagari?"

"I want to send you two a simple "see you soon" before you got on the plane. I didn't know you were coming, so I couldn't do that before."

That actually wasn't a bad idea. Gotta start small, right? I smile at Kagari and nod.

"I'll consider it. What about you, Suzuha?"

"How about an email telling your brother to make sure you don't just leave the airport like that? I was worried sick, you know."

"I second that." Hibiki raised his hand.

"Me too." Kagari raised her hand as well.

I didn't have much of a choice considering that fact everyone else was in agreement. At least it was better than Hibiki's idea. I shudder just thinking of that one. I then burst into laughter once more.

"Good. Good. We've decided on our objective. Fantastic. 008, you begin typing up your message on your phone while Hibiki and I set up the Phone Wave (name subject to change) Mark II over in the development room."

There weren't any tables, so the Phone Wave (name subject to change) Mark II sat on the floor. We plug it in and the front lit up. No fire or sparks, thankfully. I then peeked over Suzuha's shoulder to see what she had written.

To: Hibiki  
From: Suzuha  
Subject: Stay Put

Stay at the airport until I pick you up, okay?  
Keep your sister under control.

Though I didn't agree with the message's contents, I felt it should be motivating enough for Hibiki to stop me from just leaving like that. I looked up at Suzuha.

"That seems sufficient. Let's do this. Assistant! Connect your phone to the unit and set the timer for..." I then realized that I didn't have the numbers for the destination. Papa said one second on the timer equaled one hour in the real world. I flipped out the calculator on my phone and did some basic calculations. I got my results and relayed them to Hibiki. "29! Set it to 29 seconds." If I did my calculations right, this should be received by my brother about two hours before we touched down. That should leave enough room for any errors in my calculations.

Hibiki did as I instructed and we started the machine. Ten seconds passed on the timer and nothing happened. I then realized we hadn't opened the microwave door. That was key to the experiment. I pulled on the door handle and a wave of electricity flowed out. The whole room was filled with this scary blue light in a fraction of a second. We all ran to take cover and I yelled over to Suzuha.

"Send it, Suzuha! Send it now!"

I don't know if she heard me, but that didn't matter. At that very moment, I felt a sudden pain in my head. It was intense. My vision of the world soon shattered and everything stopped.

******  
(Chapter Five: Out Now!)


	5. Chapter 5

The Next Generation  
Steins;Gate  
Chapter Five

2052.05.09 - 4:35 PM JST  
Thursday

A grey haze filled my vision as the world spun around like a top. My head hurt like nothing else. I felt like I had just come off a really intense roller coaster. I heard distant voices, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. What was this? I didn't much time to ponder this question. With another burst of pain, I suddenly snapped back to reality. The grey haze went away and my hearing returned.

I then looked at over Hibiki. Our eyes met. He seemed just as disoriented as I was. Did he also go through that painful experience? Were we shocked by the electricity or something?

"What the heck was that?" Hibiki growled under his breath. "Did you feel that too, Asuka?"

"You mean that horrible headache?" I asked him, gripping my head in pain. "Yeah. I felt it."

Honestly, the pain was so severe I was considering a visit to the hospital. I feared that we actually seriously hurt ourselves this time. I then spotted Suzuha and Kagari out of the corner of my eye. They were looking at us strangely. I couldn't help but comment on this.

"What's wrong you two?" I raised an eyebrow. I didn't understand what their problem was. Suzuha was the first to respond.

"I think we should be asking you and that question." Suzuha told us. Hibiki and I gave her a confused look. Suzuha groaned in frustration. She wasn't taking this well. Kagari then took over.

"Asuka? Hibiki? Don't you remember? We were in the middle of an important discussion when both of you just spaced out for some reason. Is everything okay?"

I was about to say maybe we should go to the hospital, but Hibiki stopped me with a simple shake of his head.

"We're a little banged up, but we're okay." He told her. "N… now what were we talking about?"

"We were trying to decide what to send as our first a test for the Phone Wave Mark II." Suzuha answered him.

"Y-yes. Of course." Hibiki replied sheepishly. "You want to start us up again, Asuka."

"It's Kyouma II!" I yelled at Hibiki before turned back to the other two girls. "Anyway, my idea for a first test is…" I trailed off. Something was definitely off. Then it hit me.

"Wait… don't you remember the test other we conducted not even five minutes ago?"

Blank looks came from Suzuha and Kagari. Did they not remember this test?

"What are you talking about? We haven't even plugged in the Phone Wave yet. How could've we already tested it?" At this point, I seriously thought the rest of the lab members were just messing with me. I turned back to the development room, but the Phone Wave (name subject to change) Mark II wasn't there. It was back in the living room, where Hibiki and I were working on upgrading it. I then glanced over to Hibiki again. He also looked puzzled. Did… did that mean he remembered too?

"What's going on here?" Both of us questioned this at the same time. The chances of this being a prank seemed to be diminishing. If this wasn't a prank, then that must mean…

"Assistant, your phone."

"Huh? What does that do with…" Hibiki's eyes widened. He realized we had sent an email back in time. Hibiki pulled out his phone and open up his inbox. He swiped down to yesterday. There were three emails from Suzuha.

Date: 2052/05/08 - 11:01 AM  
From: Suzuha  
To: Hibiki  
Subject: (no subject)

Stay at the airport until I pick

Date: 2052/05/08 - 11:01 AM  
From: Suzuha  
To: Hibiki  
Subject: (no subject)

you up, okay?  
Keep your sister

Date: 2052/05/08 - 11:01 AM  
From: Suzuha  
To: Hibiki  
Subject: (no subject)

under control.

"What?" The word just escaped my mouth without thinking. This was the email that we sent back in time. Sure it got broken into three messages for some reasons, but the date clearly read May 8th. It… really worked. A smile then formed on my face. I started up my evil laugh again, startling everyone else in the room. I then grabbed Hibiki's cell phone out of his hands and triumphantly shoved the LCD screen in Suzuha's face.

"Tell me 008, do you remember sending any of these emails?"

Suzuha glanced at Hibiki's inbox for a second and then back at me.

"N-no. I don't. Didn't you already ask me this question?" Suzuha still didn't get it. Looks like I had to spell it out for her.

"Don't you get it?" I asked her, super enthusiastically. "These three emails are the result of our first test of the Phone Wave (name subject to change) Mark II. We sent this message back in time just now."

"You're… you're kidding." That's the only response Suzuha could muster. I laughed it off.

"Oh no, I'm not." I told her confidently, I then point to our invention. "I the great Hououin Kyouma II, can now declare without any doubt that this microwave is in fact... a time machine!"

My statement was followed with silence. Honestly, I didn't know if everyone was just in awe of what we'd accomplished or if they were quietly rolling their eyes. Then Hibiki's phone went off before anyone could get a word in. It was still in my hands, so I took a glance at number. It was Papa.

"I'll take that, thank you." Hibiki pulled his phone away from me.

"Hello?" He answered the call. "Oh hi, Papa. Y-yes, of course, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be? Asuka? She's right here. I-I'll tell you what, let me put you on speaker."

Hibiki lowered his phone from his ear and held it between us. He then turned on speaker phone.

"If it isn't home base." I cheerfully greeted my father. "Are you expecting my report? I can say things have been going well over here so far."

"That can wait, Asuka." Papa seemed serious. My smile evaporated immediately. "Is everything okay with you guys? Is Suzuha doing a good job supervising you?"

"Yes, Papa. Everything's fine. What… what's wrong?" It wasn't like my Dad just to call out of the blue like this. Something was up.

"I just experienced Reading Stein… I mean I had a bad feeling something happened. I'm sorry, I probably interrupted one of your experiments. Feel free to continue tinkering now. Bye bye."

Papa hung up before either Hibiki and I could respond. What… was that about? Hibiki slipped his phone back into his pocket. I turned to Suzuha and Kagari before clearing my throat.

"Anyway, my assistant and I are a bit out of the loop. We have a few questions for you two."

"Okay…" The girls responded. They still didn't fully understand, did they? It's clear that our message did, in fact, change the past somehow. We just needed to confirm how. This might make me look like an idiot, but it was in the name of science.

"What happened yesterday afternoon? At the airport, I mean."

"N-nothing really." Suzuha answered me. "You and Hibiki waited in the lobby for me to pick up."

Really? This was exactly what I wanted to hear. Our attempt to change the past actually worked.

"Yes! Our testing experiment was successful!" I cry this out for the world to hear. I smile and proudly stood in front of my fellow lab members. "Listen up everyone, this is what happened."

I told Suzuha and Kagari about the experiment we just conducted. They didn't remember it at all. I guess that made sense though. If Hibiki and I did stay at the airport, Suzuha wouldn't have come up the to idea for our message. If she never came up with that idea, we would've never set up the experiment. But that begs the question, why do I remember then? Could that headache have something to do with it? When I mentioned the headache to the group, none of other lab members recalled have one it. This was with the exception of Hibiki. Who had already told me that he experienced a headache just like mine. It was at about the same time too. Could there really be a link? Another experiment would be required to challenge that theory. That sounded like fun. I finished my explanation of our current situation and announced my decision to everyone.

"I'm breaking up our meeting for today." I advised them. "We'll resume with a second experiment tomorrow."

It may have been only five o'clock, but no one had a big problem with packing up early. We went downstairs and bumped into Tennouji Yuugo, who was preparing to go home himself. He turned to us with a slight smile. Again, strange considering the history he had with my father.

"Ha. So this is your new lab?" Tennouji asked us. He then squinted his eyes. "Okabe Asuka, Okabe Hibiki, Hashida Suzuha…" Tennouji called each one of our names accompanied with a simple finger point. He trailed off once he reached Kagari. She answered Tennouji's puzzled look with a bright expression.

"I don't think we've met, mister. My name is Shiina Kagari."

"Shiina…" Tennouji repeated. "You don't mean…?"

Hibiki and I nodded along side Suzuha. I think we all knew what he was getting at. Tennouji chuckled.

"Wow. Your parents sure know how to keep their friends around for the long haul. I wasn't nearly so lucky."

After a bit more small talk, Tennouji and Kagari headed home. During our conversation with this guy, I determined that his memories had been modified as well. He knew Suzuha, despite the fact they never met in the original timeline. This just magnified the fact that Hibiki and I remembered. Why us? What made us special? I sat on this until we got back to the hotel room.

"This has to be the weirdest day of my life." Hibiki commented. "We… we really built a time machine? Crazy old Papa Okabe was actually right for once?" Hibiki looked me. His expression told me he was actually concerned. I give him the smuggest face I could muster.

"Come on, assistant. Cheer up! We've just modified time itself."

"That's exactly what's bothering me, you idiot. This machine could be used to carry all sorts of hideous crimes. It could start wars, it could destroy entire cities and towns, it could be used to send people military intelligence. The Phone Wave is dangerous. There's a reason why Papa didn't tell of the world of its existence. The world would go nuts."

I had to admit, Hibiki had some good points. Our little microwave could very well be used as a weapon of mass destruction in the wrong hands. I still wanted to experiment with it though. I guess we had to make a compromise.

"You're right." I said to him. "We'll keep our project top secret from now on. Just give me a few more days with the microwave and then I'll willingly take it apart myself. Deal?"

"Yes, deal." Hibiki said with a sigh. "What are going to do with this extra time, anyway?"

I looked right into Hibiki's eyes after he asked this question. I told him my true feelings on this.

"On the contrary, I think time travel can be used to benefit people's lives too."

******  
(Chapter Six: Out Now!)


	6. Chapter 6

The Next Generation  
Steins;Gate  
Chapter Six

2052.05.10 - 9:47 AM JST  
Friday

I got barely any sleep the night after the time machine, my brain just kept running in circles. I spent a good five hours tossing and turning in bed until a passed out of pure exhaustion. I talked to Hibiki the next morning and he didn't fare much better. In fact, we both slept right through our alarm clocks. Only Suzuha's pounding on the door finally woke us up. It was 9 AM when she did this. Needless to say, we were mindless zombies for about half an hour. Once we got to the lab, I immediately splashed some hot water in my face to wake me up. I then took my place in front of my fellow lab members.

"What are we doing today, Asuka? I felt like I didn't do much yesterday." Kagari said this with a small pout. Did she feel bad about her lack of input? I tried to cheer her up.

"Haha. Don't worry, Kagari." I told her. "We're gonna be doing some groundbreaking work and your help will be much appreciated."

"What exactly are you thinking about trying, Asuka? More time travel?" Suzuha asked me this almost sarcastically. I ignored her disbelief and nodded.

"Yes. One last experiment." I said this with a hint of regret. This made Suzuha and Kagari looked at me with blank faces. Oh right, I had that discussion with Hibiki in private. I didn't feel like going over the morals of time travel again, so I jumped past this and continued the conversation.

"This will be our second message sent back in time." I announced to the group. "This experiment is intended to make another person's life better. Any suggestions?"

Everyone was in deep thought. Hibiki then raised his hand. I swear if this was about Jason…

"Why don't we try to improve Mama's childhood? From what I've heard she had it pretty rough."

"Yeah." Kagari said with widened eyes. "Didn't your Grandpa go crazy or something when she was young?"

"I heard that too." Suzuha commented. "His mental health deteriorated until he slipped into insanity."

I remembered overhearing Mama and Papa talking about this. It truly was a horrible thing for her to go through. Those mental scars still remained visible even today. Could I really help relieve that pain? I liked that idea thought a lot. Mother's Day was on Sunday too. It was perfect.

"Brilliant, assistant. Just brilliant. Let's start working on a message right away."

Hibiki then started working on an email for us to send. We were hoping Grampa would see this and get diagnosed before he went entirely off the deep end. If he got diagnosed, there was a chance he would recover and be the father Mama always wanted. If not, at least we tried. While Hibiki was writing, I looked over Suzuha's spreadsheet again and found something I had missed the first time. There was an entry about this thing called "Read Steiner" and it was mostly intact. Didn't Papa say this term when he trailed off yesterday? I clicked on a link Suzuha set up, which went straight to a slice of the video had saved from obliteration. A younger Papa filled the screen again.

"...Reading Steiner is my special ability. It allows me to remember the events of one worldline when I switch over to another. It's a handy tool, but it's really painful. I'm certain that everyone has Reading Steiner to some capacity. Given time, other people might what happened remember too. The only reason I believe Reading Steiner is so strong in me is because of a really severe cold I got in the winter of '99. I have to tell you, if it wasn't for Mayu…"

The video then cut out at that point. So that's why Papa called yesterday? He was worried that something happened to us after the timeline changed? Interesting…

"Hey, assistant." I called Hibiki over. "I think I found out what that headache was about."

Hibiki walked over and I showed him the video. His reaction was similar to mine.

"Okay, that makes sense. We must've inherited this too. That's why Kagari and Suzuha don't remember what happened yesterday."

"Exactly." I told him. "We're gonna have to do something about this though. Things could get messy if Papa remembered everything after the timeline changed."

"So we send an email to stop him from getting that cold? That sounds like a lot of work…"

"Yes, assistant. Won't this make them both happy in the end?"

"We'd also be erasing our own memories too, you know. We wouldn't be able to tell Mama and Papa what we had done."

"Who said we needed to take credit?" I scoffed at Hibiki. "I'm fine with everyone believing it was the choice of fate. As long as Mama has a proper childhood."

"This really is about her, isn't it? Not another of your egotistical fantasies?"

"Of course it's about Mom." I told him, slightly offended. "My ego isn't that big, you know. Anyway, how's the email coming?"

"Yeah about that…" Hibiki trailed off. "Suzuha and I did some research and public email as we know it didn't really become a thing until about 1995. Also we have no way of determining what email address Grandpa had at that time, assuming he even had one."

That was true. This Grandpa, our Mom's Dad, was long dead. It was unlikely that Mama would know this information either. We were sort of stuck.

"There might be a work around though." Suzuha called out from across the room. She walked over to us with her laptop. "Dial up internet may have been in its infancy, but it did exist. We could hack into an old dial up connection. Then a computer could print the message and sent it to your grandfather through the post."

I look at Suzuha in disbelief. This was a very well thought out plan. I was sure she thought that Hibiki and I were bluffing about the time travel stuff. I guess my assistant convinced Suzuha to at least help us. That must've taken some work. Maybe I should consider giving him a 20% raise. Afterall, 20% of 0 is still 0.

The three of us discussed this plan in more detail. Apparently, cyber security in the 1990s was a joke when compared to today. Suzuha told me there were tools out there that could break into a Winddex 98 computer in ten seconds. Data compression has also improved a lot in the past sixty years. We could probably send over 200 words now. This was great news, but we needed to upgrade the Phone Wave (name subject to change) Mark II even more. The timer on the microwave could only go to 99 minutes and 99 seconds. That was only 6039 seconds on the timer or 251 days back in time. That was nowhere near the 528,768 seconds required to go back over sixty years.

Suzuha suggested buying hardware to interface with the microwave's computer. She said she could change the code so the timer counted high enough to get our message this far into the past. We had to order it in from Korea though, so it would take about a day to get here. I decided we should use this time to get as much done as we could.

I assigned Suzuha to work on the computer and get as much done as she could. Hibiki and Kagari worked on other upgrades Phone Wave (name subject to change) Mark II, like the ability to send two messages at one time. We were going to attach another cell phone connector to it, among other things. I had the job of research. I look dig into old websites found out the information we needed to make this work. That included the postal address Grandpa had in 1992 and the dial up number we were going to hack into. I even had to have a dragged out phone call with my other grandfather to get his old email address. That was not easy. By the time I hung with him, it was 8 PM. Time to go pack up again.

The walk to back the hotel was uneventful. Hibiki commented on how surprisingly good Kagari was at soldering. I guess she got a good steady hand from all the sewing she does with her Mom. Hibiki and I went to sleep and the next day was uneventful too. We met up at the lab again and resumed our designated tasks. We worked through the day and left at about six this time. Before I knew it, Sunday had arrived. Hibiki and I arrived in front of the CRT workshop and we were called over by Tennouji. At first, I was afraid he was terminating our rent, but he just wanted to hand over our package. We thanked him and headed upstairs, where Kagari and Suzuha were waiting for us.

"Suzuha, Kagari, assistant." I called out. "Get ready. It's time about we executed the final phase of Operation Mobiltelefon."

Hibiki groaned after my statement. He knew that last part was more German. He didn't like me randomly throwing in foreign words for no reason. I then pointed my finger at him.

"Okay then, assistant. Why don't you volunteer and write the letter we're gonna send to send to Grandpa Makise. Try to make it clear he has a problem." I then turned away from Hibiki to face the Phone Wave (name subject to change) Mark II. "Meanwhile Suzuha, finish the final preparations to the technological side of things. I'll write the email for our grandfather."

"What… about me, Asuka?" Kagari asked me. Was there anything she could do today? "You can assist Suzuha with any required soldering." I told her. We all start working for the third day in a row. It took about three hours, but we were finished. Suzuha and Kargari installed the new hardware for the microwave. Hibiki and I were done writing a while ago. We exchanged our results. First I showed him my email draft.

To: okabe_grocery  
From: Hououin Kyouma II  
Subject: Important Info

N250 Lottery: 892451885977188.  
Time for a family vacation?

I hoped Grandpa would use some of this lottery money to go on a family trip. This way Papa would never acquire Reading Steiner. Hibiki agreed this was probably the best course of action. I then took a look at what Hibiki had written.

Dear Dr. Makise,

There is something urgent I need to tell you. I understand you are planning to have a child in the coming months. Yes. I know this. I have access to information you can't even begin to imagine. I am also aware of your passion for your work, especially time travel research. I respect your efforts in this field, but what you don't realize is that it's eating away at your mental health. You're going to have some serious mental problems ten years down the line. Trust me when I say this. If you continue down this path, you're going to hurt the relationships you hold the most dear. Think of the future of your unborn daughter. Regardless of whether or not you believe me, I beg you to ask people about your behaviour. Maybe even get yourself examined by a specialist. You'll be glad you did.

Sincerely,  
Concerned Citizen

"Sounds good. That should spook him enough to at least look into it." I told Hibiki. I turned to check on the other group. "How are you two doing?"

"We're ready when you are, Asuka." Suzuha answered. My evil smile formed again.

"Splendid. Let's get started then."

I connected my phone on the left side and Hibiki connected his phone on the right. Suzuha then copied a bunch of files over to Hibiki's phone. I didn't fully understand what they were all for, but I decided not to pick a fight with our tech expert. Within twenty minutes, we were prepared for launch. Hibiki and I grabbed the send buttons on our phones and Suzuha started the machine. About twenty seconds in, I turned to Kagari.

"Could you open the microwave door, please?" I asked her nicely. She nodded.

"Sure."

Kagari pulled open the microwave and the electricity flowed out just like before. This time it was even more intense. The lights were even flickering. Were we on the verge of flipping a breaker? The flickering start geting worse, maybe we turn everything else off first. Before I could complete that thought, turned to me at yelled so I could hear his voice over the buzzing of the electricity.

"On my count! Three! Two! One! Go!"

That this exact moment, both Hibiki and I pressed send. I was expecting our memory wipe to be painless, but that horrible headache returned. My vision became filled with that grey haze once more. Then everything stopped and started again. It was a repeat of Thursday afternoon, but somehow even more painful.

******  
Did it work?  
Find out more in my other story: Trapped in a Strange New World

******  
(Chapter Seven: Out Now!)


	7. Chapter 7

The Next Generation  
Steins;Gate  
Chapter Seven

2052.05.11 - 8:02 PM PDT  
Saturday

When I snapped back to reality, I realized I was standing in my family's dining room. We were back in America. Hibiki was at my side. There were two women in front of us. One of them was our Mom, but I didn't recognize the other person. This mystery woman looked just like Mom, but she had dark black hair and this hair was much shorter too. Who was this? They looked at us questioningly. Did our messages work? I was afraid to ask this directly.

"Are you two okay?" Mama asked us. Hibiki and I nodded. Mom still looked concerned though.

"I'm fine." I told her. "I… I just feel a bit tired. Maybe I should lay down now."

I start walking towards my room, but Hibiki didn't follow me. He had spaced out. I lightly tugged on his collar.

"Assistant, I also need to have an important discussion with you. Come with me."

I dragged Hibiki into my room and locked the door behind us. I turned to my brother.

"Do you remember what happened just now? Yes or no?"

"Yes, it was the headache again." Hibiki answered. "Why do we remember though? Did it not work?"

"I don't know, but clearly something happened. We're back in America now. You want to try searching Grandpa's name on Goodle? He was apparently pretty famous even in our original timeline."

"Makise Shouichi… Yep. He has a WikiBio page." Hibiki tapped the touchscreen on his phone. "PhD in Physics at Tokyo Gakugei University, 1991. Professor at Victor Chondria University from 1993 to his death in 2015. Inventor in his spare time."

"That's certainly better than the life he had before. What does it say about Mom?"

"Let's see… PhD in Physics at Victor Chondria University, 2014. Professor at Victor Chondria University from 2015 to present."

We both looked at each other in surprise. Physics? Mom went into physics? She majored in neuroscience before the timeline shift. I guess Grandpa had much more influence on our family than we thought. Hibiki then scrolled back up to the top the page. Something then caught his attention.

"Um, Asuka… I think I found out who that lady was downstairs."

I didn't get what he was referring to. He then showed me his cell phone screen. It was showing me the family section right at the bottom of Mom's profile.

Family:

Shouichi Makise (father)  
Violet Makise (sister)  
Rintarou Okabe (husband)  
Hibiki Okabe (son)  
Asuka Okabe (daughter)

At first, this list seemed innocent enough. However, that all changed when I took a second glance. Who was this Violet person? She was Mom's sister? Then it hit me.

"In this version of reality… we have an aunt?"

I couldn't believe it. We never intended for this to happen. It made sense though. If Grampa didn't go crazy, he would've stayed with Grandma longer. They must've had a second child during that time. I shook my head.

"We need to find out whether or not Papa remembers too." I told Hibiki. "That should determine our next course of action."

Hibiki agreed and we headed out to the living room, where Papa was reading the news on his tablet.

"Hi, Papa." I greeted him. He then put his tablet aside.

"Hi, you two. What's up?"

Papa was trying to be joyful and open, but I didn't really help. I started playing with my fingernails. I was nervous, but this was a question that I had to ask.

"Papa… what's Reading Steiner?"

Papa's eyes widened and his mouth hung open in shock. It was the face I would expect if I asked him to give me "the talk". What Papa did next made this perfect.

"Kurisu!" He called for help from Mom. She came running in from the dining room. The mystery woman also followed her. The woman we now believed to be our aunt. Aunt Violet… that's a name I needed I get used to saying. Papa got up from his chair and exchanged a series of whispers with Mama and Aunt Violet. They all wore an intimidating expression. I quickly realized like I had suddenly stumbled into a really serious topic. I almost retracted my question.

"Asuka, where did you hear that?" Mom's words were quite harsh in tone. I looked into her eyes. What was I going to say?

"We overheard you and Papa discussing it a few days ago. As you might imagine, it confused us quite a bit. You know, time travel and stuff."

I couldn't believe it. Hibiki was bluffing himself into a corner just for me? Why? What did we have to lose at this point? Aunt Violet then looked over at Mom.

"Maybe… maybe we should tell them?" She suggested. "They are old enough now."

"I wanted to protect them from the Phone Wave." Mom told her. "But if the cat's out of the bag, I guess we have little choice."

Mama then turned to Hibiki and I. Her face told me she was still hurt inside. Did we somehow make things worse?

"Follow me." Mom led us down into the basement to a locked door with a keypad on it. She entered the password and the door opened. I couldn't believe what was in this room. It was the Phone Wave. The original Phone Wave.

"Asuka. Hibiki. You won't believe this, but this microwave is a time machine."

Hibiki and I give her a confused glance. Mom must've thought we were in disbelief, while in reality our heads were just being filled with even more questions. Why does she know what Reading Steiner yet it doesn't seem like Papa does? Why is the original Phone Wave here in the basement? I thought Papa destroyed it. No, that was the previous timeline. Something changed in the last sixty years to cause this. The question was what.

"I know that sounds crazy and deranged, but I swear it's the truth. I know because I've been to other worldlines. I knew all sorts of stuff that never happened. I know a reality without your aunt. I know a reality where I wasn't obsessed with time travel. Stupid. Stupid Phone Wave. Never use this device, understand kids? Suzuha was lucky she didn't cause any real damage when she ran off with my time machine."

Mom then began to cry and she left the room. Quite frankly, I felt like crying too. This was not what I wanted. Papa and Aunt Violet escorted us out and relocked the door. I looked to see what password was. 725. Mom's birthday, of course.

Hibiki and I went back to our rooms. My heart was broken. If Mom was just a bit sad before, she was an emotional trainwreck now. My heart sank. I knew I had to do something. I came up with a plan. I sneaked down to the basement when everyone was asleep and opened the door using the password. I set up the Phone Wave and switched it on. I managed to get Mom's phone and unlock it using the fingerprint sensor. It was hard doing that without waking her up. In her phone, I found a log entry about Suzuha taking off with the time machine. Apparently, she travelled to the year 2012. June and July to exact. I set the Phone Wave to July 1st and started typing a brief message using my Mom's phone again.

To: Suzuha  
From: Kurisu  
Subject: Get Phone Wave

Please get a device from 2012 Okabe and destroy it.  
This device is called the Phone Wave. Delete this  
message after you receive it. Thank you.

I just hoped that Suzuha still used the same email address back then. I plugged in Mom's phone and started the Phone Wave one last time. Electricity immediately began to flow. The microwave door had actually been taken off completely. Neat idea, wish I had thought if it. As the discharge got more intense, the house began to shake. This jolted Mama and Papa awake.

"Oh my gosh! Okabe, the Phone Wave!"

I heard one pair of footsteps exit my parents' room and bolt straight for the staircase. It was time to send the message, yet I hesitated a few seconds. This was enough time for Mom to reach the basement floor and look right across into the open doorway.

"Asuka?!"

This was the only word she could get in before I pressed send. The headache came returned and we were sent away to yet another timeline.

******  
(Chapter Eight: Out Now!)


	8. Chapter 8

The Next Generation  
Steins;Gate  
Chapter Eight

2052.05.12 - 1:19 AM PDT  
Sunday

I laid in my bed and suddenly jolted awake. Was that all a dream? No. I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss this. I then realized that I was in my bedroom in America. Was that really all a dream? Did I really go to Japan? Did we really rebuild the Phone Wave?

I quickly checked the current date on my cell phone. It was May 12th. I couldn't have slept for an entire week. That must've meant it was all true, right? As I thought about this more, my bedroom door flew open. It was Mom.

"You have some explaining to do missy. Out to the living room. Now."

I follow her instructions and walk out into the living room. Papa and Hibiki soon joined us.

"Asuka, what did you do to get your mother so upset?" Papa asked me.

I kept quiet. I really didn't want to say it, but ultimately I had little choice.

"I... I used the Phone Wave to send something back in time." I told them. Both Papa and Hibiki were shocked.

"Why... why would you do that, Asuka?" Hibiki yelled at me. "Haven't we screwed with the timeline enough?"

"Huh?" Mama and Papa were obviously confused. Tears began to form in my eyes as I explained to them what Hibiki and I did.

"In... in an another timeline, we went to Japan and rebuilt the Phone Wave there. I used some data Papa saved on an old CD-ROM."

"Another timeline?" Papa questioned. "How do you remember that? Wait... does that mean?"

"That's right." Hibiki confirmed. "Asuka and I have Reading Steiner."

The was an awkward silence. Both Mama and Papa were surprised.

"You sent the dmails that sparked this whole thing?!" Mom yelled at us. "Why? Why would you do that?!"

Mom was understandably upset. Tears filled my eyes and my nose began to run. I barely got my answer out.

"Mother's Day."

Mom froze again. She seemed finally understand what had happened. She walked up to me and we entered an embrace. Mom comforted me. Seconds pass and we break up the hug.

"You want to fix this, don't you?" She asked me. I nodded without hesitation.

"Follow me then."

Mom led Hibiki and I back down into the basement. She approached the door into the room with the Phone Wave and entered the passcode. The door opened we saw the same room as last time, expect there was a weird satellite thing sitting in the middle of the room. Mom pointed at it.

"This is Makise Time Machine 004 or MTM-004 for short. This will be our ride back to 2012."

You're... you're serious?" Hibiki asked Mom in amazement. "This is a time machine? Like a proper time machine?"

"It is." Mom confirmed. "Get in, we have work to do."

"Really? Right now?" I asked her.

"Yeah. Come on, we're wasting time."

Hibiki and I got inside the time machine and Mom did a quick walk around to make sure everything was okay. She then joined us inside and started fiddling with the settings. She smiled and closed the time machine door. It felt a bit cramped in here. Mom then turned to me.

"Asuka, do you want to do the honours? Press the big red button above your head."

I pressed the button and the time machine began to do its magic. Saw the months of the calendar fly by. With in an hour, we had travelled over fifty years back in time. Before I knew it, it was the year 2012. We landed with a sudden jolt. The door opened and we stepped onto the roof of a building. I looked down to the street and saw a scene right out of an old photograph. We really were in the year 2012.

"We're Akihabara." Mom told us. "You know where the lab is, right?"

"Yeah..." I trailed off. "You're not coming with us?"

"I'm afraid not. I would rather my nineteen-year-old self not see herself as a brittle and cranky sixty-year-old."

"Come on, Mom." Hibiki commented. "That's not true.

"Well, maybe not. However, I still shouldn't meet my past self unless I have to. You tell her what happened and take her here. That's how we'll fix this mess."

"What about you? Are you staying here?"

"No. I have to stay here in the past in order for this to work. I'm probably not the happy mother you two are familiar with. I'll get myself erased and another Kurisu will fill my place. That's the best way to fix this. The best way to fix the pain in my heart."

"Mom..." Hibiki and I whimpered. I got what she was saying, but I still didn't want to think of her getting erased. Mom guided us down the staircase and onto the street. She looked down at the sidewalk.

"I guess this is goodbye. At least in a way. I wish you luck. The time machine's interface is really easy to use. You'll have no problem operating it."

With this, Mom disappeared into the crowd. Hibiki looked at me with curious eyes. We were across the street from the train station. I knew exactly how to get to the lab. We headed straight there. Just as we arrived, I heard our father yelling through the open window.

"Can you do it or not, hack?! This could be a matter of life and death!"

"Yeah." Uncle Daru responded. "I could fool the plane's GPS to fly us to America, but that's highly illegal. We could even be branded as terrorists."

"Since when has that stopped you before?" Papa retorted. "You've broken the law hundreds of times with your hacking."

"People's lives were never at stake. You're also talking about drugging the flight crew and hacking the airline database so we have enough fuel. That's a lot to do and we could get caught at any time."

Those two continued to argue. I didn't get what they were talking about. Why did Papa need to get to America so badly? I then heard a voice call out from behind us.

"Hey, Kyouma. Hey, Ms. Makise. Wait up."

I knew that voice. I just didn't want to believe it. Hibiki and I turned around and saw Uncle Ruka. He looked about eighteen-years-old. His eyes widened when he saw our faces.

"Oh. Sorry. I thought you were some friends of mine."

Uncle Ruka proceeded to walk around us, but I grabbed his sleeve.

"You're Ruka, right?" I asked him.

"Y-yeah. How did you hear that?"

"I'm Mom... er... Kurisu's cousin." I caught myself a bit late. "She told me about you."

"Really?" Uncle Ruka's face light up. I nodded.

"Yeah. Could you tell me where she is right now? I need to talk to her. Is she in the lab?"

"No." Uncle Ruka shook his head. "She went on a trip to America with Violet and Mayuri. I don't know when she'll be back. I can give you her cell phone number."

"That's okay." Hibiki butted in. "Do you know where in America?"

"I'm not sure. I know Kyouma and Daru are talking about going after them tomorrow morning. I think they said they're going to a city called Boise in Idaho."

We thanked Uncle Ruka and went back to the time machine. I typed Boise, Idaho into the time machine. The onboard computer converted it into coordinates. I changed our destination slightly so that we would land near the airport. I set the time and date to the appropriate settings but I hesitated to press the big red button. We were to leave our own mother behind in the year 2012. Could I really do that?

"Asuka, we need to do this. When this is all over we'll still have a Mom. You can count on it."

I weakly press to start button and jumped to the next night in America. We got to the airport and saw that something had happened. I talked to the security staff and they told me that an incident had occurred aboard an aircraft and the whole terminal was under lockdown. Hibiki and I weren't allowed in. As we got ready to leave, I saw a group of three girls heading towards the door. It was Mom, Aunt Violet, and Aunt Mayuri. I wanted to call out to them but I lost my voice at the worst possible time. I did over hear them talking though.

"Where are we going now, Kurisu?" Aunt Mayuri asked. "I'm tired."

"I think we'll get a room and sleep." Mom answered. "I've heard the Gamma Hotel chain is pretty nice."

They then exited the airport. They were out of sight before I could get to the door.

"Dang it." I cried out. "How can we find the address of the nearest Gamma Hotel?"

"You could try using that using that phone book over there." An older gentleman said this to me before stopping and pointing at a line of payphones down the hall. A phone book? That was ancient technology to me. But if it works, it works.

I approached a payphone with a phone book. I flipped to the GAM section. I find it and write the address on a scrap piece of paper in my pocket. After that, Hibiki and I went back to the time machine for one last jump before picking Mom up. We jumped to the roof of the Gamma Hotel with a loud thud. Hibiki and I waited for the machine to cool down and then opened the door. Mama and Papa were already there. We climbed out and Hibiki addressed them.

"You're Kurisu and Rintarou, right?" He asked them. They nodded and Hibiki took another deep breath.

"Good. I'm Hibiki and this is my sister Asuka." He then pointed over to me. "I hate to be so blunt, but I thought you should know that we have just come from the year 2052. And… and..."

Hibiki couldn't finish his sentence. I had to take over for him. I couldn't blame him for being nervous, I was nervous too.

"And we're also your children." I finished his sentence.

******  
(Chapter Nine: Out Now!)


	9. Chapter 9

The Next Generation  
Steins;Gate  
Chapter Nine

2012.07.25 - 7:30 AM MDT  
Wednesday

Mom's mouth hung open in shock. She must've been really surprised to see us. Papa then took on his mad scientist persona.

"Mahaha. Is this a test, Christina No. 1?" He asked Mom jokingly. "I must admit you hired some pretty good… actors…"

Papa stopped. He must've realized the Hibiki and I weren't joking around. His face changed to match Mom's. I understood why they were acting like that. Mama and Papa hadn't even gotten together at this point. They weren't dating, they weren't married, and they certainly weren't thinking about having children. I can only imagine how weird it must feel now that Hibiki and I showed up. I knew I had to say something.

"Mom, we've been asked by your future self to help you fix the timeline once and for all."

"How…?" Mom asked me. "We're not even sure who started all this. How do we know they won't just make everything worse than it already is?"

"That's because we did all this, Mom." I told her. "Hibiki and I. We rebuilt the Phone Wave."

"What…?" Mom trailed off. She seemed to be caught in a mixture of emotions, anger greatly surpassing everything else. Mom then grabbed me by the shoulders.

"Why would you do that?! Do you have no common sense?! Did I teach you nothing about the dangers of time travel?!"

She yelled at me and shook me with great force. I was broken. The only response I could muster was a soft whimper.

"Mom, y-you're hurting me." This was all I could get out before the tears started to flow. Mom instantly let go of me and ran into the stairwell. She looked just as shaken up as I was. Hibiki followed her and I collapsed to the ground. I really was an idiot, wasn't I? Why did I think any good would come from messing with time? I then felt Papa's shadow creep over me. I looked up into his eyes.

"Hey. You're a member of the Future Gadget Laboratory, correct?"

Papa said this and pointed at my lab coat. I nodded hesitantly.

"Stand tall then. You're surrounded by your fellow lab members. Christina No. 1 will be punished appropriately for that outburst."

Uncle Daru raised his hand, but Papa shoot him a dirty look. I wasn't sure what happened there and I didn't think I wanted to know. Aunt Violet then decided to speak up.

"Um, Asuka, right? How is-"

"No." I suddenly interrupted her. Something clicked inside me. Papa's encouragement seemed to have really helped. I stood up and switched over to my own mad scientist side.

"My name is not Asuka. Okabe Asuka does not exist." I paused and smiled. "My true name is Hououin Kyouma II! Lab member 013! The Organization will fall once and for all! Wah hahahaha!"

Uncle Daru and Aunt Violet looked surprised while Papa and Aunt Mayuri smiled alongside me. I was glad that I was able to get over that. I hoped Mom could recover for this too. Hibiki should be able to comfort her though. Aunt Violet then tried to ask her question again.

"You and Hibiki. How are your names spelled? In Japanese, I mean."

"My name is spelled 明日香 and Hibiki's name is spelled 響." I told her, put off by her question. "Why do you ask?"

Aunt Violet then burst into laughter. No one else seemed to get what was so funny. She then turned to Papa.

"Okabe, you and Kurisu have to be some of the dorkiest parents ever. Doesn't 明日香 mean 'fragrance of tomorrow' and 響 mean 'echo'? Those are some really uncreative names."

Papa looked at her. He was half embarrassed and half annoyed. Aunt Mayuri then sent this conversation in a whole other direction.

"Hey, Asuka? How old are you and your brother?"

"We're both 15." I answered. "We're twins, in case you were wondering."

"Really? Well, you both seem really mature for your age." Aunt Mayuri said. She honestly didn't look much different from her older counterpart, only younger. I then heard the door to the stairs open up. Mom and Hibiki stepped back out onto the roof. Mom walked right up to me and spoke.

"I'm… sorry for shaking you like that. There was no excuse for it, no matter how angry I was."

"Apology accepted, Mom." I told her . "Now it's time for me to return the favour with Operation Zeit Journey!"

"Zeit?" Mom questioned. Hibiki then filled in the gap for her.

"It's the German word for time." He explained. "We're going to take our time machine back to 1999 and 1992. We want to fix this, remember? We stopped here just to pick you up."

"Why didn't my future self tag along with you guys then?" Mom asked us. I shook my head.

"You really think you're going to be that energetic at the age of 59?"

"Anyway, hop in Mom." Hibiki encouraged her. "You'll be back in the original worldline before you know it."

She took one step towards the time machine and bite her then looked back at Aunt Violet before turning back to me.

"How many seats does your time machine have?" Mom asked me.

"Four." I told her with a confused glare. "Why?"

"I would like us to make an additional stop and I would like Violet to tag along." Mom told me. "Would that be a problem?"

"N-no. We can do that." Hibiki answered. "You're the boss, after all."

Aunt Violet nervously approached the time machine and carefully stepped in. Mom followed her in. Hibiki and I boarded as well. We closed the hatch, with everyone waving goodbye.

"Okay. Where are we going for this pitstop, Mom." I asked her once we were all set to go. She sighed.

"My apartment in Tokyo. July 20th."

"July 20th? You mean this year?" Hibiki asked her. She nodded.

"Yes. Try to set us down at around 7 PM."

Hibiki got her postal address from me and entered it into a computer to convert it into coordinates. Then we finally took off. The ride only was incredibly short when compared to the trip from 2052. After about a minute of travel, we arrived on July 20th. Mom told Hibiki and I to stay put while she went inside with Aunt Violet. Hibiki and I played on our phones about thirty minutes, but then I started to get worried. I slipped my phone into my pocket and marched over to the stairwell. Hibiki followed suit.

"Asuka? Weren't we supposed to stay put?" He asked me. I shook my head.

"We were told that half an hour ago." I answered. "We need to make sure everything's okay."

"But we don't even know what Mom is doing here." Hibiki commented. "Where do we even start looking for her?"

"We'll start looking in her apartment."

When Mom gave us her address, she also gave us her unit number. We walked right up to suite 511 and knocked on the door.

"I'll get." Aunt Violet called this out from the other side of the door. She opened the door and her face shifted to an expression of confusion and fear.

"What are you doing here?" Aunt Violet whispered this to us. I didn't get why she was being so secretive. Mom then walked up from behind her.

"Hey. Who are your friends?"

My heart stopped. We were in a very sticky situation right now. I had totally glossed over the fact that there were two versions of Mom running around. This is clearly a version of Mom from before we met. What was I going to say?

******  
(Chapter Ten: Out Now!)


	10. Chapter 10

The Next Generation  
Steins;Gate  
Chapter Ten

2012.07.20 - 7:34 PM JST  
Friday

I stood there in the doorway with my mouth open. There were clearly only two ways out of this. Either I lie through my teeth or I tell her the truth. I was honestly tired of spreading lies but did I really have much of a choice? I went to open my mouth, but Aunt Violet beat me to it.

"Tell me Kurisu, do you believe that time travel is possible?" She asked Mom. Mom looked a bit confused.

"Well, I guess it's possible based on current science." Mom replied. "What does that have to do with these two?"

Aunt Violet was strangely calm under these circumstances. She then turned to Hibiki and I.

"Why don't you tell her your full names?"

"I'm Okabe Hibiki." Hibiki introduced himself. Now it was my turn.

"And I'm Okabe Asuka." I told her. "But please call me Hououin Kyouma II!"

I could hear Hibiki facepalm without even having to look. Mom appeared stunned.

"O-Okabe? Wait… are you two related to a goofball named Rintarou?"

"Yes, they are." Aunt Violet jumped back into the conversation. "They're also related to us too." She paused and looked at me. "Isn't that right, Asuka?"

Mom gave me a blank expression. I knew exactly what was going through her head. I had to say something.

"You said that you believe time travel is possible with current science." I stopped for a breath. "Well, I can say with 100% certainty that time travel is possible. That's because… we're time travellers."

Mom then shifted to a confused look before frowning shortly afterwards.

"You… you're serious?"

"Yes, we are." Hibiki confirmed. "Do you want to see our time machine?"

Mom followed us up to the roof and we showed her the time machine. She immediately hopped inside and examined the controls before stepping back out.

"Okay, you've done a pretty good job of convincing me." Mom commented. "Why are you here though.? And why is Violet with you?"

I filched in response to her question. I couldn't tell Mom the first time, I certainly couldn't do it now. I grabbed my phone from my pocket.

"Hey… Kurisu…" Even though we were in the past, it still felt wrong calling my own mother by her first name. Mom then walked over and looked over my shoulder. She pointed at an app labeled "CALgov".

"Hmm… what's that?" She asked me. My reply was automatic.

"It's an app from the California government." I told her. "It provides my… government ID…" I trailed off as I realized something. CALgov held my birth certificate. That would be the perfect way to break the news to Mom. I turned to her and smiled.

"Let me show you."

I tapped on the screen and the app opened. I swiped past my social security card and state identity card. I then reached my birth certificate.

Name: Okabe, Asuka  
Born: 03-15-2037  
Sex: Female  
Place of Birth: Los Angeles County, California  
Father: Okabe, Rintarou  
Mother: Okabe, Kurisu

I handed my phone over so Mom could have a look. Her face told me everything. She took a step back and studied me. Mom could probably see a lot of herself and a lot of Dad too. She then sighed.

"Okay, too much information. Way too much information." Mom paused to sigh again. "I hope you're here to do more than say hello."

"Oh. Yes they are." Aunt Violet responded. "Asuka? Hibiki? Why don't we explain the situation to Kurisu?"

We went ahead and explained everything to Mom. The rebuilt Phone Wave, our dmail experiments, and Reading Steiner. It was a lot for her to take in, but Mom did a remarkable job of absorbing the information.

"So, you want me to help you create a proper send off for the other me? So she doesn't regret switching timelines?"

"Yeah." Hibiki confirmed. "Any ideas? It needs to be able to survive the timeline shift we're going to execute in 1992."

Mom put on her thinking face for a few seconds. It then appeared that she had an answer.

"Could you get us to Lisbon, Portugal on June 1st 1973? With the time machine, I mean."

"Of course." I told her. "What's your idea?"

"On that day, a time capsule was buried there." She explained to us. "And it's not supposed to be opened until 2052. Would that work?"

I thought about. Hibiki and I were from 2052. If we put something like a photo into the time capsule, we could return the site in the future and pick it up.

"I think it would." I announced. "Let's go to Portugal."

Without much of thought, we all hopped in the time machine and headed to 1982. We stepped out into the streets of Lisbon. Thankfully we all spoke English, so we had little trouble getting around. It turned out that the time capsule was being buried near the seashore. We arrived there and spotted a group of photographers with huge ancient Polaroid cameras. Well, maybe they were brand new for 1982, but they were still ancient to me.

"Hey there." One of the photographers called out. "Would you mind if we take your photo? It's for the time capsule."

We all looked at each other. I guess we were all expecting that we would need to buy a camera ourselves. This was a pleasant surprise. The four of us posed for a few photos. They also had a tape recorder for audio messages, which Aunt Violet took advantage of. She recorded a thirty second farewell to Mom. Aunt Violet spoke in Japanese, so the content wouldn't raise any eyebrows. We thanked the photographers and made our way to the time machine. We returned to 2012, about five minutes after we left. We ran inside and Mom headed back to her apartment. The door shut and we turned down the hall. Then the other version of Mom came out of the elevator, I could tell them apart by their faces. Mom looked at us with a look of anger and slight confusion.

"What are you two doing down here? I thought I told you to stay on the roof."

"Yes, but that was over an hour ago." I told her. "We were worried."

This split second cover up seemed to work. I decided not to tell Mom about this. She would disapprove greatly. I wanted it to be a surprise too.

"F-fair enough." She replied. "What are we doing next?"

"First thing." Hibiki told announced. "We need to stop Grandpa Okabe from getting that lottery number."

******  
(Chapter Eleven: In Progress)


End file.
